TDF Stage 10-Mulhouse-La Planche des Belles Filles *spoiler*

OPQS

deejay wrote:

I've had a chance to reflect on the Nibali tactics so far.
He put the pressure on the GC favourites during the early stages and this caused them to "Panic" about losing any more time to him.
This anxiety they had, caused them to take unnecessary riding styles in an attempt to keep up and with less care they then crashed.

Both Froome and Contador could drop Nibali in the high Mountains. I doubt they give him a great deal of thought at all.

cesco

Couldn't watch live today, so had to settle for the extended highlights. Contador and Froome out is a massive blow. Both crashed twice. Climbing a Cat.1 with a broken leg, wow.

That aside, some of my highlights were:
- Rodriguez grabbing the red dots on his big ring.
- Martin having no legs left from yesterday. (Not an actual highlight obv., but dramatic it was).
- Nibali's solo attack.
- Rodriguez and Nibali negotiation. Nibali disagreed and off he went.

adr82

dish_dash wrote:

Shane Stokes has the full story on the broken bikes... :P

http://cyclingtips.com.au/2014/07/tinko ... dor-frame/

OK... let me try to summarise this because it's such a bloody mess:
- bike #1: Roche was riding this at the start of the day (the Tarmac)
- bike #2: Contador was riding this at the start of the day
- bike #3: Contador's spare bike with a race number, on the roof of the team car
- bike #4: another ordinary spare bike without race number, also on the roof of the car
- When Contador had his big crash on bike #2, Roche left his bike (#1) at the side of the road for Contador to use if needed (this is the one you see on the verge just behind him in the photos)
- While the car was trying to drive up to the crash location, it got too close to the Belkin car, and Contador's spare bike (#3) got smashed up somehow by clipping another bike or the roof rack or something. This is why the snapped frame looks so clean in the photos, because it was never actually ridden today.
- Contador then finally got going again on bike #4, and that's the one he was riding when he abandoned.

I think that's roughly correct...?

cesco

Possibly posted already (49 pages, oof), but here's Contador's shoe after the crash:

adr82

cesco wrote:

Possibly posted already (49 pages, oof), but here's Contador's shoe after the crash:

Nope haven't seen it already... snapped the cleat in half :shock:

dwanes

Blazing Saddles wrote:

dwanes wrote:

Porte was annoying the hell out of me today towards the end. He seemed more interested in what the rest of the group were doing instead of focusing on reducing the deficit between him and Nibili.
He shouldnt give two hoots as to what the group were doing at that stage. By the time he realised this (or told to by race radio) it was too late.
He doesn't come across as the brightest in the bunch.

Everyone in that group took the tow and finished ahead on Porte.
Valverde sat on right the back and made his usual 150m sprint.
Took 5 seconds off Porte, in their battle for second.

Sounds like the issue is with you, not with Porte.

.............................................................................................................................................

Astana have both the strongest rider and the strongest team in the race.
The only teams left, that can send someone up the road who remotely threatens the GC, are Ag2r and to a lesser extent, Sky.
Movistar had that option last year, but not on this occasion.
Things looking bleak on the options front.

5 seconds?? that's insignificant at this stage. What is significant is Nibalis lead, not 5 seconds.

He should be focusing on that yellow jersey, not weaving about worrying about 2nd place. Who gives a toss about second place (or a few seconds of it) at this stage. Reducing Nibalis significant deficit should be priority.

DeVlaeminck

OPQS wrote:

Both Froome and Contador could drop Nibali in the high Mountains. I doubt they give him a great deal of thought at all.

I think Contador probably gave him some thought when he got the best part of 3 minutes lead after the cobbles and Froome is unlikely to have been in a better position even if he hadn't crashed.

Seeing Nibali today it's hard to believe Contador or Froome would have taken much time out of him.

Anonymous

What was he doing back there (how far back was he?) to warrant such reckless descending?

moray_gub

Coach H wrote:

frenchfighter wrote:

At least he has a good chance of winning the Butlins Knobbly Knee Contest during his rehab

Last time i seen a pair of pins like that they were hanging out of a Craws nest !

moray_gub

ThomThom wrote:

Fuglsang just said Contador took a huge risk on the descent he crashed on passing several riders on parts he shouldn't have.

Not surprised in the least he rode like tw*t last year as well and almost took out Froome on a

tailwindhome

http://cyclingtips.com.au/2014/07/tinko ... dor-frame/


According to the company’s team liaison Giampaolo Mondini, the rider fell on a straight road when he was descending at speed. “He was trying to take some bars from his pocket, the tarmac was irregular and he lost the control of his bike and fell,”

Daz555

TailWindHome wrote:

http://cyclingtips.com.au/2014/07/tinkoff-saxo-tangle-with-belkin-bikes-identified-as-cause-of-snapped-contador-frame/


According to the company’s team liaison Giampaolo Mondini, the rider fell on a straight road when he was descending at speed. “He was trying to take some bars from his pocket, the tarmac was irregular and he lost the control of his bike and fell,”

Doesn't sound like the actions of "the greatest stage racer of his generation"...... :?

Fair play to him for trying to continue tho. That leg must have hurt like hell.

Lanterne_Rogue

coriordan wrote:

What was he doing back there (how far back was he?) to warrant such reckless descending?

Annoyingly, I can't find the quotes now, but I saw something that suggested that Nibali had left a bit of space in front of himself when Contador went past. Nibali picked up the pace to close the gap as he didn't want Contador starting the next climb with an advantage, the next thing Contador went down hard.

Nothing suggests that Contador wasn't in the same group as Nibali and Gallopin at the point it happened - there's quite a few suggestions he was reaching for something in his pocket when he hit a pothole, which implies he wasn't really descending recklessly, just a bit unlucky.

Even as part-timers, we've all been in similar situations, surely? I hit a pothole on the way back from seeing stage 1 at about 37mph and was very, very close to stacking it despite having two hands on the bars (I was worrying about the car alongside, hence not watching the road closely enough). Hitting it on a damp road with one hand behind my back doesn't bear thinking about.

BenderRodriguez

adr82 wrote:

dish_dash wrote:

Shane Stokes has the full story on the broken bikes... :P

http://cyclingtips.com.au/2014/07/tinko ... dor-frame/

OK... let me try to summarise this because it's such a bloody mess:
- bike #1: Roche was riding this at the start of the day (the Tarmac)
- bike #2: Contador was riding this at the start of the day
- bike #3: Contador's spare bike with a race number, on the roof of the team car
- bike #4: another ordinary spare bike without race number, also on the roof of the car
- When Contador had his big crash on bike #2, Roche left his bike (#1) at the side of the road for Contador to use if needed (this is the one you see on the verge just behind him in the photos)
- While the car was trying to drive up to the crash location, it got too close to the Belkin car, and Contador's spare bike (#3) got smashed up somehow by clipping another bike or the roof rack or something. This is why the snapped frame looks so clean in the photos, because it was never actually ridden today.
- Contador then finally got going again on bike #4, and that's the one he was riding when he abandoned.

I think that's roughly correct...?

I thought that the story was that the bike Roche started on had been driven over and broken as well?

Whatever, whilst the original explanations given clearly didn't hold water, it could well be that the the 'broken' bike was damaged as the team car attempted to get up to Contador. However, I have not yet seen a picture anywhere of a bike with Contador's number and so on, which he could have been riding, that is unbroken but suffering from post-crash damage. Obviously this bike must exist if the latest version of events is true. Can anyone point me to some pictures of it?

adr82

BenderRodriguez wrote:

adr82 wrote:

dish_dash wrote:

Shane Stokes has the full story on the broken bikes... :P

http://cyclingtips.com.au/2014/07/tinko ... dor-frame/

OK... let me try to summarise this because it's such a bloody mess:
- bike #1: Roche was riding this at the start of the day (the Tarmac)
- bike #2: Contador was riding this at the start of the day
- bike #3: Contador's spare bike with a race number, on the roof of the team car
- bike #4: another ordinary spare bike without race number, also on the roof of the car
- When Contador had his big crash on bike #2, Roche left his bike (#1) at the side of the road for Contador to use if needed (this is the one you see on the verge just behind him in the photos)
- While the car was trying to drive up to the crash location, it got too close to the Belkin car, and Contador's spare bike (#3) got smashed up somehow by clipping another bike or the roof rack or something. This is why the snapped frame looks so clean in the photos, because it was never actually ridden today.
- Contador then finally got going again on bike #4, and that's the one he was riding when he abandoned.

I think that's roughly correct...?

Clearly, whilst the original explanations given didn't hold water, it could well be that the the 'broken' bike was damaged as the team car attempted to get up to Contador. However, I have not yet seen a picture anywhere of a bike with Contador's number and so on, which he could have been riding, that is unbroken but suffering from post-crash damage. Obviously this bike must exist if the latest version of events is true. Can anyone point me to some pictures of it?

Haven't seen that one either. I was also just rewatching the footage of him post-crash, and it looks like one of the mechanics carried away the Tarmac bike (#1) as Contador was finally getting going again, so I guess Roche must have swapped bikes as well at the same time.

BenderRodriguez

adr82 wrote:

Haven't seen that one either. I was also just rewatching the footage of him post-crash, and it looks like one of the mechanics carried away the Tarmac bike (#1) as Contador was finally getting going again, so I guess Roche must have swapped bikes as well at the same time.

From the link:

“Nicolas Roche was involved in a separate incident today and while his bike was laying on the road it was run over by a car causing it to break

So now we have Roche on three bikes! The one he started on that ended up broken, the one he continued on up to the Contador crash, and which was carried away by the mechanic, and the one he finished on.

Let's see some pictures of Contador's 'crashed but unbroken' bike, and I might start to believe what we have been told.

Pokerface

Here's the pic that confirms the story about Bertie's broken bike being tangled up with the Belkin team car:



As mentioned in the article in the previous post(s), the story was also confirmed by Belkin.

Lanterne_Rogue

BenderRodriguez wrote:

Can anyone point me to some pictures of it?

This might well be a 'dog bites man' story - there's nothing especially newsworthy about an unbroken bike. Given the magnitude of the story and the amount of damage to the clearly broken bike, it beggars belief that a bike in that state could be anywhere near a badly injured Contador without anybody taking a photo of it at that point - it's simply too powerful an image not to draw attention to anyone with journalistic impulses.

One more point - Contador went down at high speed on a bike with white tape that he'd been riding all day, yet the bars on the bike that's folded in two look spotless. That doesn't square up for me.

adr82

BenderRodriguez wrote:

From the link:

“Nicolas Roche was involved in a separate incident today and while his bike was laying on the road it was run over by a car causing it to break

So now we have Roche on three bikes! The one he started on that ended up broken, the one he continued on up to the Contador crash, and which was carried away by the mechanic, and the one he finished on.

Let's see some pictures of Contador's 'crashed but unbroken' bike, and I might start to believe what we have been told.

I'm not sure about the Roche thing, the article does that say that but it also gives a conflicting account from someone else. The snapped frame definitely isn't a Tarmac, which is what Roche was riding at the start. Normally spare bikes don't have race numbers (although apparently Contador's mechanic puts one on his spare bike) and the Tarmac you can see behind Contador does have a number, so you'd expect that to be the one Roche started the race on, and it looks intact from what I can see. So he definitely had a bike change there, but I don't know about a second one...

adr82

Pokerface wrote:

Here's the pic that confirms the story about Bertie's broken bike being tangled up with the Belkin team car:



As mentioned in the article in the previous post(s), the story was also confirmed by Belkin.

Well that settles that then, thanks! Makes the damage you can see in the other photos a bit more explainable.

Lanterne_Rogue

adr82 wrote:

Pokerface wrote:

Here's the pic that confirms the story about Bertie's broken bike being tangled up with the Belkin team car:



As mentioned in the article in the previous post(s), the story was also confirmed by Belkin.

Well that settles that then, thanks!

Although this is probably useful evidence too. Note the crap all over the bars...



https://twitter.com/richardgorman/status/488801930320560128/photo/1

adr82

underlayunderlay wrote:

adr82 wrote:

Pokerface wrote:

Here's the pic that confirms the story about Bertie's broken bike being tangled up with the Belkin team car:



As mentioned in the article in the previous post(s), the story was also confirmed by Belkin.

Well that settles that then, thanks!

Although this is probably useful evidence too. Note the crap all over the bars...



https://twitter.com/richardgorman/status/488801930320560128/photo/1

Yeah, I think all the pieces are coming together now

BenderRodriguez

Pokerface wrote:

Here's the pic that confirms the story about Bertie's broken bike being tangled up with the Belkin team car:



As mentioned in the article in the previous post(s), the story was also confirmed by Belkin.

OK, that is pretty good evidence. Just show me the bike Contador started out on, whole but battered, and I will be convinced!

Lanterne_Rogue

adr82 wrote:

Yeah, I think all the pieces are coming together now

Although the conspiracy nuts will assure us that the lighting is all wrong, it could have been taken in a studio on an entirely different day, you can't see the stars, the flags are fluttering in a vacuum, and that Bianchi-sponsored Belkin have some kind of reason for covering up the failure of a rival manufacturer's machine that's linked to the fact that they choose the same colour tracksuits as David Icke.

Ho hum - it's settled to my satisfaction, anyway.

Pokerface

BenderRodriguez wrote:

Pokerface wrote:

Here's the pic that confirms the story about Bertie's broken bike being tangled up with the Belkin team car:



As mentioned in the article in the previous post(s), the story was also confirmed by Belkin.

OK, that is pretty good evidence. Just show me the bike Contador started out on, whole but battered, and I will be convinced!

See previous post(s)!!

BenderRodriguez

adr82 wrote:

Although this is probably useful evidence too. Note the crap all over the bars...



https://twitter.com/richardgorman/status/488801930320560128/photo/1

Yeah, I think all the pieces are coming together now [/quote]

Good stuff! We can all sleep soundly now knowing that our carbon frames are unlikely to suddenly fail under us.

Lanterne_Rogue

BenderRodriguez wrote:

Good stuff! We can all sleep soundly now knowing that our carbon frames are unlikely to suddenly fail under us.

Cycling at 40mph one-handed on a damp road, however, may lead to unexpected onsets of gravity...

(looking again at the bike that Contador stacked, is it me or is the right-hand shifter turned inwards by quite a distance?)

adr82

underlayunderlay wrote:

BenderRodriguez wrote:

Good stuff! We can all sleep soundly now knowing that our carbon frames are unlikely to suddenly fail under us.

Cycling at 40mph one-handed on a damp road, however, may lead to unexpected onsets of gravity...

(looking again at the bike that Contador stacked, is it me or is the right-hand shifter turned inwards by quite a distance?)

Does look like it, which'd make sense given the state of the bar tape on that side. I think it was his right knee that he hit as well.

tailwindhome

Jens 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... -payruR2-k

Contador save ????

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVzNFnOx-RA




No particular reason to post - "just popped in there"

adr82

underlayunderlay wrote:

Cycling at 40mph one-handed on a damp road, however, may lead to unexpected onsets of gravity...